STATE HOUSE ROUNDUP -- We're gonna need a bigger seawall

Deval Patrick used a saying when he was governor for any situation that wasn't completely under his control.

"God willing and the creek don't rise," he would say. Well, the creek is rising. And so are the bays, estuaries, marshes and, most concerning, the Atlantic Ocean.

Patrick isn't governor anymore, though he was back in the news week, and the problem of coastal flooding has fallen to Gov. Charlie Baker and the lawmakers who watched helplessly over the past week as parts of their districts succumbed to Mother Nature, washed out by rising tides pushed increasingly inland by intensifying storms.

In between the heavy wave action, Baker, who lives near the beach in Swampscott, came out of a meeting March 5 with House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Harriette Chandler preaching the need for action by people.

"Other people have used marshes and culverts and other devices to redirect water. People have done stuff with respect to zoning. People have changed the way they organize their flood plans. We have a lot of work to do on this one," the governor said.

Baker now says he plans to file climate adaptation legislation soon, which must be a welcome sound to Sen. Marc Pacheco, who has been pushing climate legislation for years, and successfully got it through the Senate on several occasions, only to watch it die in the House.

DeLeo said the lack of movement in his chamber has not been about a reluctance among House Democrats to tackle climate adaption, but rather the ways the Senate has muddied the bills with other initiatives. The Winthrop Democrat, whose own hometown had roads closed due to recent flooding, said he wants to approach climate change planning bite by bite.

These back-to-back storms just may provide the surge needed to breach the seawall in the House, with Majority Leader Ron Mariano also acknowledging last week that the House is working to get a bill onto the priority list. Mariano's home city of Quincy prominently featured in the recent flooding.

The list of bills identified as priorities by elected officials is growing long.

Another week went by without much of anything getting done in the Legislature, and budget deliberations could soon quickly swamp all other issues.

The conference committee negotiating criminal justice reform celebrated its 100-day birthday, and DeLeo said that Mariano will now lead the floor debate in the House over health care reform after April budget week, working off the "detailed outline" of bill left behind by Peter Kocot, who died last month.

Rep. Jim Cantwell won't be around to take part in either of those debates after he confirmed last week that he had accepted a job to become U.S. Sen. Edward Markey's new state director, and will resign from the Legislature on March 28.

Neither will Brendan Crighton, who started the week a member of the House and finished it a member of the Senate. Crighton won his uncontested special election to replace Lynn Mayor Tom McGee in the Senate March 6 and took the oath the next day, trading the East Wing for the West Wing.

No matter what seat you're running for, uncontested is the way to go if you have a choice. Unfortunately for Secretary of State William Galvin, he doesn't have a choice, and the fact that he's facing a primary challenge from Boston City Councilor Josh Zakim seems to have him a little on edge.

Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera went on record with the News Service last week describing an angry phone call he received from Galvin the night Rivera endorsed Zakim. During that call, Rivera said Galvin took credit for his first victory in 2013, a narrow win by 81 votes over William Lantigua.

"I made you mayor," Galvin said, according to Rivera. Well, needless to say, that didn't sit well with the mayor, and the curse words started flying in both directions. It was the type of call that probably happens all the time in politics, but almost never makes it into the press.

Galvin probably never thought Rivera would go public with the their phone conversation, so maybe that's why it took four days for the 24-year incumbent to say anything in response, and he did it by talking with Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham rather than calling back the reporter who first wrote the story.

According to Abraham, Galvin thought he had received a commitment of support from Rivera in January, which Rivera denied, and called to see what changed. He admitted he probably let the call spiral too far, and didn't dispute the fact that his work to bring fairness to Lawrence elections helped the mayor win.

Baker refused to get drawn into the spat, professing his respect for both men. After all, he has his own issues to deal with.

Weather-related delays on the T and the commuter rail continued to play into the hands of the governor's Democratic opponents. While they have repeatedly questioned his management and strategy for improving T service, it's a more-fundamental question that has people talking these days -- Why won't the governor just ride the T himself to see what all the fuss is about?

Former state budget chief Jay Gonzalez trolled the governor March 5 by walking from Baker's house in Swampscott to the nearby commuter rail station and using public transportation to get to the State House. The commute, according to Gonzalez, wound up being pretty smooth that day, save for a ticketing snafu in which no one checked his ticket.

But Baker is sticking with his story that his schedule makes it too hard for him to take the T, even for one day, and that he doesn't need to ride the T to understand the frustrations of its passengers or for any other reason.

"The governor is not a point-to-point person. It's very rare that I go from one place to the same place more than once, and that makes it extremely hard to think about how to factor that in," Baker said.

Putting that excuse aside, it has gotten to the point where it feels more like a staring contest between Baker and his rivals.

Take the T, and it might look like he caved to their pressure for a too-little-too-late publicity stunt. Don't take the T, and he continues to be the governor who won't stoop to commute to work with the masses. Lose, lose.

Patrick, when he was governor, wasn't exactly Mike Dukakis either, riding the Green Line to work every day. But once in awhile he would walk out his front door in Milton with his security detail trailing behind, and traipse down to take the Red Line into Boston.

No one cares whether Patrick rides the T anymore, and it certainly won't take him to Iowa.

The two-term governor chose to end his self-imposed political exile, popping up in Kansas City for events and interviews and inviting the 2020 speculation.

"It's on my radar screen," Patrick told an interviewer about a possible presidential run. Though he has never slammed the door to the White House for himself, it has also never been as clear as it is now that it's not just outsiders urging to him to run.

Whether he can get his family to buy in and ultimately pull the trigger remains to be seen, but when a governor from Massachusetts starts talking about how he's no stranger to handling a gun and hunting, it usually only means one thing.

Quote of the week -- "It's not like I'm sitting under the golden dome, peering out into the valley to see if somebody is trying to invade the castle," Galvin told Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham. "I am out in the valley, and on the hill beyond."